5/10/2018 - FOUR LEGGED MARIONETTE

As a further experiment onto the puppets I had already created, I wanted to explore a four legged form. At this stage I didn't really have any expectations for functionality at this early stage, but simply wanted to make the first step towards multiple moving parts.

Still working with my simple crossbar controls, however this time with two crosses instead of one, I decided once again to use a dinosaur form of a Styractosaurus for it's recognisable shape.

I strung the legs together in much the same way as the other prototypes, however to give extra strength to each component dispite the growing complexity I also started to embed extra supports into each section to prevent the string from slipping through, as had become a bit of a problem in the other prototypes.






I really liked the movement possible with a greater number of animate parts, as it seemed to give the puppet a crawling gait which, although was quite unlike the movements of a dinosaur, definitely had a dynamism of it's own. Myself and my housemates immediately remarked on the alien nature of this movement as we made the little creature slink and clamber around the living room.

Once again though I found myself fascinated by the subtleties in movement from one puppet to another. Already my housemates said how this one had an entirely different character to the other two legged ones I had previously created. But the four legged design definitely needed a lot of fine tuning and was going to be more complicated to perfect. 

However operating each of the legs individually on a double cross frame was very complex as it was difficult to get each leg moving independently and convincingly, so I knew that to get multiple leg mechanisms a different control technique would need to be used.

As this was collaboratory experimentation with Molly Taylor, she was also working on forms in plasticine, however quickly became frustrated with the medium. We decided she should then try making a fabric based puppet, as this is the material she is most comfortable with working with, and we were interested to see how fabric would change the properties and possibilities of the puppets.

So she created Rainbow Goose from felt and calico with weighted plasticine feet. The softer materials gave another element of believability to the puppets movement and also effectively represented a more naturalistic form in a step away from dinosaurs. Layering felt feathers also give the piece a bit more visual depth. I think the greatest strengths could come from combining elements of fabric and solid material to allow manoeuvrability as well as rigidity of form.